Students: Building Your Personal Brand For A Career In Sales And Marketing

Marketing and sales students – this post is just for you!

With leaves changing to fall colours, many companies have been hitting campus with gusto to find the best seniors for upcoming internships and new grad jobs.

The competition on campus between employers is getting hot as the economy picks up and companies’ hiring numbers increase. A shift is starting, where students will have more power as the number of jobs available increases; however, we aren’t quite there yet. As a student, it is important to play a lead role in choosing your first job out of school and selling yourself to your employer(s) of choice.

Your personal brand

You need to build your personal brand as a sales and marketing student because potential employers want to see that you can apply the basic principles of marketing. If you can’t sell or market yourself, why should they trust you to market or sell their products and services?

First, do a branding exercise to understand your unique value to a future employer. Think about how you present yourself both in person at company campus recruiting events or interviews, and in online spaces.

Things you should evaluate include:

·         How you dress

·         The language you use

·         How you can showcase specific accomplishments

·         How you come across to employers – do you seem credible/real?

Your personal brand - online

Your online personality should mirror how you come across in person. Ensure that, if your future employer seeks you out on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook, there is consistency in the things you say you are knowledgeable about or roles you played in extra-curricular activities.

Things like LinkedIn recommendations are very valuable, especially with LinkedIn launching a new student profile option.

In sales and marketing, future employers will likely perform a social media search on their top candidates – think of this as a “reference check.” Make sure that you hide information that future employers don’t need to see (e.g., Facebook photos) and remember that social media is PERMANENT. 

Your personal brand – in person

For in in-person events, network and showcase your personality as well as your interests and skills.

Marketing and sales is a lot about a “fit” in being personable, believable and coachable. When I interview for entry-level marketing roles, I look more for a strong personal impression than wide sales/marketing experience – I can teach you how to be successful, but I can’t teach you how to think critically or have personal credibility.

I want you to highlight your interests, where you think the industry is going, recent highlights at my specific company, and why you believe you fit the company culture. Show you spent some time researching my company online, even talking to past interns or employees, and understanding our culture.

Don’t treat every networking session, interview or online application the same. Most recruiters are very open to telling you the unique parts of their company, so talk to them and ask for a follow-up prep call prior to an interview.

If you don’t meet a recruiter on campus, reach out to them via LinkedIn. Recruiters will highlight great candidates’ applications if you wow them. Consider this reach-out like dating – you only have one opportunity to make that perfect impression that might lead to a relationship (or in this case, a fantastic career)!

Students: As I am now a regular contributor to TalentEgg.ca (Canada's leading job site and career resource for students and new graduates), I will be featuring monthly articles written specifically for students on my blog. I would love your thoughts on what you want to hear about! Please comment below to drive future articles.

Inspiration in Books: Building Trust

For those who know me well, I often describe myself as a bit old school when it comes to reading. As a bit of a geek at heart, I love the library and my kindle is almost always close at hand. Old school doesn’t seem like it goes with someone who is so active in social media – does it?! I balance staying up to date with regular blog reading, internet searches, online newspaper articles & then some old school paperback books. I typically have 2 books on the go at all times: one a good “beach read” to relax my mind after a busy work day & one a work inspirational book to help me think differently.

I just finished Steven M.R. Covey’s The Speed of Trust. As son of Steven R. Covey, (think The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People), he has a great background in organizational effectiveness and leadership. He states that“trust is the hidden variable in the formula for organizational or personal success” and uses the formula:
“(S x E)T = R  OR ([Strategy times Execution] multiplied by trust equals Results.” Trust is thus a function of character and competencies. Covey highlights that leadership is getting results that inspire trust. It is equally about the HOW and the WHAT. By using the right “how” that empowers direct reports or colleagues you establish trust and increase your ability to get results faster time and time again.

This book was inspiring as it spoke about the 4 cores of credibility: Integrity, Intent, Capabilities and Results. It outlines that understanding these key core skills will then allow you to demonstrate them through 13 behaviours that increase your ability to gain trust.

I’m currently moving into a new role at work & reading this book came at the perfect time. Half of my current team is continuing to report to me and I’m gaining a new USA based team. Learning how to create trust in a new team cross border is a challenge that I am up for. I won’t give away all of the tips from Covey’s book but will highlight some of the behaviours he values that I believe are key in having new direct reports. Creating transparency, delivering results, giving credit where it is due, clarifying expectations & listening first all hit the highlights. If you are going through a career change, a promotion, are managing a new team or have a new manager, understanding how to build trust will set you up for success. Empower yourself with education – look online & don’t be afraid to be a little old school & actually pick up a recommended paperback every once in awhile.

Cheers & happy reading. Do you like book recommendations? I’m considering adding a monthly hot read feature to my blog. Reading any great business or personal development books right now? Would love some recommendations myself!

Quote Reference: The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything by Steven M.R. Covey

Image from: http://www.mnartists.org/work.do?rid=209028

Steve Jobs = Apple's Employment Brand

Steve Jobs’ death rocked the world this past week. He dropped out of college after only 1 year & co-created one of the most innovative brands in his parent’s garage in his mere 20s. He followed his heart & focused on what inspired him versus fumbling his way through what he “should do.” Not only was a he a leader that people fought to follow but he created an atmosphere of innovation and doing things differently at Apple. Steve Jobs personified Apple and its employer brand of innovation, leadership, and credibility.  Apple’s employment brand is strong yet they barely publicize what working at the company is like versus some of their major competitors like Google or Microsoft.

Jobs was not a perfect leader. He had his ups and downs and was so headstrong that he was actually fired from Apple, the company he co-created, in 1985. After his very public banishment, he subsequently founded NeXT (a computer platform) that Apple actually purchased in 1996 and brought Jobs to his role as CEO. Jobs was not afraid of the lime light or telling his career stories including the good, bad & the ugly. He drove trust in Apple as a visionary through his innovative thinking and delivery of consistently doing things differently.  With Jobs’ heroic lose to cancer, Apple needs to build on this legacy and expand their employment brand to overcome the loss of their powerful CEO. Time will tell how they do on this mission.

As a reminder of all of the wonderful things Jobs lead & the things he stood for, please see the below quote about allowing innovation to lead your path to great things. If you haven’t yet also watched Jobs’ 1995 commencement address at Stanford, do so here:

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
~ Steve Jobs

My Final Thoughts: Do you have an inspirational leader within your company? Do you use them to lead your employment branding efforts & set the tone for greatness within your company culture?

Fresh Start: New School Year

Hi All
I have been a bit of an absent blogger for the last 2 months as I was launching campus programming in Canada (one internal & one for a client), the USA, China & preparing Russia & Ukraine for launch next month. Not only is it busy with recruiting but I'm moving into a new role as Director Talent Strategies, North America in my day job. Life has been slammed.  Additionally, though I haven't been posting, I've working on a whole new integrated website & new blog site :) Stay posted for more details there!

I taught a Learning & Development session this morning about building your in person & online brand. It regrounded my goals & helped me have a "fresh start" on getting back to my blog.  So cheers to a fresh school year & a fresh start!

What do you want to start fresh on?

Talent Management 101

Talent Management is a HOT topic. It is really about managing your talent proactively, aligning talent to organizational values and opportunities, and succession planning to keep your top talent happy at YOUR Company. According to Wikipedia (the best definition source) talent management “refers to the skills of attracting highly skilled worked, of integrating new workers, and developing and retaining current workers to meet current and future business objectives.” As the article calls out, “companies engaging in a talent management strategy shift the responsibility of employees from the HR department to all managers throughout the organization.” HR is a lead player in working with a company’s senior leadership team to align on a talent management strategy but ALL managers must then take accountability for developing their direct reports. Thus, training & organizational education is also a key part of a talent management strategy.  Talent management also goes hand in hand with recruiting so you can acquire the right talent to meet your business needs once you create a language to discuss skill gaps or needs. Talent management is increasingly a point of differentiation as happier employees are more productive and it helps you keep your high performers/high potentials happy and not seeking (or being open) to other opportunities.

The economy is picking up and the market for strong talent is getting hotter than ever. Many companies are failing to bench mark their talent, create guidelines for talent management development, and build succession plans for top performers.  This puts your talent at risk when other’s come calling and puts you in reactive mode dealing with counter offers or potentially being too late in the game to keep your high performers.

Here is Talent Management 101

If this is a hot topic for you, please let me know so I can build out further posts on the topic.

Step 1: Determine bench marks for talent.  What are the key pillars involved in each role & at which level to you want each manager (based on title) to be an expert? This is an exercise in itself that takes time.

Step 2: Make a companywide plan on succession planning & create guidelines for promotions, bonus plans, talent reviews, and learning & development.

Step 3: Internal Talent Review. Work with all of the senior managers to bench mark your employees (aka your talent) & identify the top performers/high potential candidates. Ensure that all managers are aligned. There are many tools/processes/templates out there to help you with this process. This should be an executive/senior manager discussion so you can really compare talent from multiple teams and have a consistent evaluation among all employees. Start with your most senior managers and work your way through each level. HR should manage these conversations.

Step 4: Coach your managers on how to have conversations with all employees – especially those high potential individuals and take them through template succession plans to determine their 1-3 year plans. Work to have a consistent strategy on getting these candidates additional exposure & opportunities based on their long term talent to truly grow them into your company’s future leaders. Templates, training & education is very important at this step as some managers may be leading high potential candidates but they themselves might be more a “steady Eddie” – also people important to keep happy & developed.

Step 5: When new business is secured or a promotion is justified, ensure that you look to those ready & willing candidates who have the right skills & the right aptitude to move into the role. Base your promotions on fit & talent versus things like tenure.

Step 6: Visit your talent review annually to revisit how you are doing on your strategy & re-evaluate your team’s growth over the past year.

Step 7: repeat repeat repeat. Remember that training & development of your managers & support from a strong HR Talent Manager/Lead is very key to lead all of the change management necessary to properly build & execute a strong talent management strategy. This is different way of thinking and thus this strategy will take time and needs alignment between HR and Sr leaders in developing the organizational plan and managing this change for your organization.

There are many assessments/processes out there to support your talent management strategy. Remember to use tools & research research research! Have a plan & then work that plan.

For those of you with existing talent management strategies, what is working? What have you learned? What would you do differently? For those just starting, how are you doing in your planning?

Below is just one visual example of an important talent management strategy as it should include everything from Acquiring Talent, to Developing, Aligning, & Assessing Talent.

Wikipedia definition of Talent Management: http://bit.ly/oDuhlt

Talent Management Process Example <via Taleo>: http://bit.ly/q3q3hE